This invention relates generally to medical imaging using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. More particularly, this invention relates to an efficient method for imaging with an array of radiofrequency (RF) coils.
A known MRI technique for increasing imaging speed involves MR data acquisition using an array of RF coils. As is well known to practitioners in the field of MR imaging, RF coil arrays have been developed to overcome certain deficiencies in other types of MR receivers. More specifically, a RF coil array generally provides a MR receiver which generally has better signal to noise ratio than a volume coil receiver, and at the same time does not diminish field of view. Additionally, RF coil arrays have been found to be particularly useful in imaging elongated structures, such as the cervic, thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine.
Generally, integration of the acquired data from the array presents potential reconstruction problems and signal to noise ratio issues. The multiple or regional images reconstructed with data acquired by each of the respective RF coils in the array must be stitched together to form an image of the full field of view. For approaches that use RF coil arrays to reduce number of spatial encoding steps, known techniques of filling up skipped k-space lines based on synthesizing Fourier harmonics and known techniques of resolving localization ambiguities directly with coil sensitivity mapping have been used to reconstruct the full-FOV image. However with these techniques, imaging accuracy, robustness and signal to noise remain issues.
What is needed is an effective method for producing an image of a region of interest using a RF coil array. What is further needed is a method for acquiring and reconstructing image data from an array of RF coils to produce an image of a region of interest.